Analysis of blood and tissue for amoxapine and trimipramine

A method for the identification and quantitation of two tricyclic antidepressants, amoxapine (Asendin) and trimipramine (Surmontil) is presented here. Samples were extracted with hexane at pH 10, back-extracted with 1.0N sulfuric acid. The acidic layer was adjusted to pH 10 and re-extracted with hexane. Electron impact mass spectra were obtained. The base peak and molecular ion for amoxapine were at m/z 245 and 313, respectively. The base peak and molecular ion for trimipramine were at m/z 58 and 294, respectively. There were three forensic toxicology cases involving amoxapine in Cook County, IL, in 1980 and 1981. The concentrations of amoxapine in blood for these three cases were 1.66 mg/L, 7.16 mg/L, and 2.95 mg/L, respectively.